Character Animator, Head not connected to body.

[Mocho Cinematic]

Hi, I am having some problems with a character.

So I have all head types, and 3 different body positions. I had the body as a draggable and with motion triggered so it would change the body type plus a walk cycle.

But when i tried to animate the arms it  just  drags the body, Then i disabled that and added keys for the bodies and motion, and when i try to drag the hand the body moves and the head stays in place.

I tried to pin the feet so it would not move but still, I cant animate the hands and the head does not fallow.

What should I do?

Video and image for reference.

[Mocho Cinematic]

I have fixed it. Instead of having the body as independent I had them as a normal group.

Anyways I welcome any other ways to fix it!

[oksamurai · Accepted solution]

Yep, you got it! Independence on the Head or Body - which you usually don't need - is usually the reason for this sort of thing.

[Red Brent]

In another words, uncheck the 'crown' icon - I think

[adamh81801852]

Hey all

I too had the floating head issue until I unchecked the crown for the body and head.

But now the very top of my head is acting like there's a pin in it. In other words, the bottom of the head moves in sync with the rest of the body in the walk cycle but the very top of the head seems to be stuck in one spot. I've got the neck tag on my body layer, so there's nothing on the head layer, except the head tag.

This is what he looks like stretched:

This is him normal:        

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Adam

[KJerryK]

Try putting the neck tag on the head group instead of the body. See if that makes a difference.

[adamh81801852]

Thank you for the quick response!

I'm still getting the same issue with the neck tag on the head. The walk behavior is applied to the body group.

Here are screenshots of all my pins etc:

[KJerryK]

The head group is usually separate from the body group, and on the same level. I would try that.

[KJerryK]

Also, the walk behavior should be for the whole puppet.

Here's an example

[adamh81801852]

Thank you again for the quick response!

So I've moved the head outside of the body group and put the walk behavior on the whole puppet, but still the same.

Does it matter that my head group is below the body group? (not within the body group but lower in layer order due to the fact the head contains a neck that goes lower than the collar, which is part of the body)

Also, I'm just trying to get a quick walk cycle, without having to utilize the camera (and control the head that way). Is that an issue?

Thanks,

Adam

[adamh81801852]

Also, I haven't added any facial layers because for this purpose, I'm only trying to achieve a walk cycle, without needing any facial animation.

[adamh81801852]

Got it!

Instead of placing a tag on the head and assigning it "neck," I clicked on the "head" tag and assigned THAT as "neck."

And it works!

Thank you for your help KJerryK!

Adam

[KJerryK]

Good going. I'm glad you got it.

[html.faery]

Hi, I am having this same issue and still can't seem to fix it. I have played around with the head and neck tags but those don't seem to solve the problem! Any suggestions of what else i could try?

[harrison98A5]

thanks for this solve!!! i can't believe this actually works but it DOES!

[alecc4771365]

Hello, 

I am having the same problem as adamh81801852. 

I have attached a video of my issue. If I make my head independent from my body I get a droopy face. Any ideas what is causing this? The face seems to work better when the head is independent. 

I have also tried turning off all the crowns in my face and this did not help the issue. I also have tagged all my 'heads' as 'necks' and attached the point to the body. 

Any help is appreciated!

[video]

[alank99101739]

Sometimes is better just to create a new thread. Not a big deal, but can make it easier to find when the thread has been marked as resolved.

It was not until I zoomed in and saw what the eyes were doing that I realized the problem! Wow! Pretty interesting!

I don't use Walk behavior much, but I think sometimes people get more natural walking posture when the head is tagged higher and directly above the neck tag. (You have them on the same point at the moment if I read the video correctly.)

But I am wondering if you zoom in on the face in the scene, then turn the yellow mesh of triangles on (its an icon at the bottom of the scene window), does it look like part of the mesh is "stuck" while the rest is moving? If so, I would try to track down where the stuck bits are. I *suspect* some of the mesh is stuck near the eyes, causing the distortion. Not sure, but the mesh can help identify the area of the problem a bit better (have the puppet moving with the mesh on, then look to see if any parts of the mesh refuse to move).

The usual reason is incorrect tagging somewhere. Its a matter of finding the stuck part first though, then doing things like deleting handles in that area (then doing undo to put it back) to see if you can find the one causing the problem.

[alecc4771365]

Thank you for the heads up about the threads!

Separating the head and neck tags worked! Thank you so much for your help. 

Until next time!

[CHACHILLIE]

Since I had the same issue with a different reason/ solution, I figured I'd share. I had to disable the FACE behavior completely (click the 👁 icon) and all is well.